Good morning, Chair and honourable members. Thank you for the invitation to address the committee in relation to your study of Bill C-15.
As the chair mentioned, I'm joined by our general counsel and corporate secretary, Frédéric Duguay.
We welcome the opportunity to speak to you about the proposal in budget 2025 to increase the Canada Infrastructure Bank's capital from $35 billion to $45 billion.
As many members of this committee know, the CIB was created to help get infrastructure projects unstuck. Through our flexible financing, we address risk and affordability gaps that get in the way of important projects moving forward. By crowding in private financing and coordinating with government granting programs, we make public dollars go further and deliver more of the infrastructure Canada needs to grow.
With $28 billion of our $35 billion initial appropriation either committed under binding financing agreements or allocated to ongoing public energy procurement, the success of the CIB to invest in infrastructure products across the country means it is starting to reach financial constraints. This additional allocation, therefore, is very much welcome and necessary. It will allow us to continue on our ambitious program of investments in projects that deliver benefits to Canadians.
Before we get into the questions, let me take a step back and share a bit of background on the CIB and our progress for committee members.
Since I joined the CIB in 2020, we have consistently made 20 to 30 investments annually—that's $3 billion to $4 billion of CIB money invested every year—and we expect this pace to increase given the critical importance of infrastructure to Canada's economic future.
I am proud to report that as of today, we have made 108 loans to projects, with a total project value of over $55 billion. We have projects in every province and territory. Our pipeline of future projects is healthy. More than 80% of our projects are currently in construction, supporting more than 300,000 Canadian jobs and other downstream domestic benefits for Canadian companies, workers and supply chains. Eleven of these projects are completed. This number is growing each quarter.
Different from a grant, the CIB makes loans and investments that are repaid with interest. Since July 2024, we have collected sufficient revenue to cover 100% of our operating costs. We are now a self-sustaining organization.
In short, the CIB is a model that is working and delivering tangible benefits for Canadians, getting greenfield infrastructure built with minimal cost to taxpayers.
Our projects range from a rail terminal in Alberta's industrial heartland to help move goods to Canada's west coast and onward to international markets; to a wind turbine and energy storage system in Nunavut to get an island community less reliant on diesel; to a biomass plant in a remote first nation community in northern Quebec to ensure long-term energy security and economic development. For each project we finance, we look at the public benefits this infrastructure delivers to Canadians—growing the economy, decarbonizing key sectors, strengthening and diversifying trade corridors, building out the electricity grid and energy supply, and closing the indigenous infrastructure gap. These impact measures form the core of our investment decisions.
This brings me back to budget 2025 and the proposal to increase the allocation by $10 billion. As I mentioned off the top, the CIB has almost $28 billion of its $35 billion allocated. If I could just describe that for a second, this represents $18 billion in legally binding credit agreements with project proponents and projects that are in construction, and an additional $10 billion in CIB term sheets with provinces and provincial utilities to support their ongoing renewable energy procurements. This pace of investments was confirmed by the PBO in their 2025 report, which concluded that the CIB is on track to reach $37 billion in financial closes by 2029-30.
Beyond our current mandate, budget 2025 asks the CIB to do even more to address the country's infrastructure gaps.
The additional budget allocation is required for us to deliver on this expanded role.
For example, the CIB was directed to consider investments in any project referred to the Major Projects Office. As committee members will understand, these are large, complex projects that will likely require financing from multiple public and private sources to advance. Opening up access to financing from the CIB is just a natural, logical move to advancing these major projects.
We have also been asked to consider investments in AI and data centres. This sector has significant infrastructure needs to support our long-term competitiveness and growth. We have also been asked to continue and accelerate our investments in indigenous communities.